…the name of the Estonian President, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, in this programme:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qsbvv/The_Virtual_Revolution_Enemy_of_the_State/
They spelt it as Thoomas Ilves. Which sounds like the bastardisation of the names Thomas and Toomas.
I have already sent a note informing the local media (Postimees) of this.
When I first saw the device, I was a bit sceptical. It didn’t seem like a very Apple-ish design, at first. But the minute I saw it on apple.com/ipad, I was immediately in love with it.
I really, really want one.
What I don’t like about it is the fact that it’s got the 4:3 screen format, which is old and outdated. And it hasn’t got any USB ports.
But there are many things I do like about it. For instance, the fact that it can run iPhone apps, natively. And calendar + address book – that interface! Wow… It looks like it’s going to be the single easiest-to-use thing, ever.
But the fact of the matter is, I’m not sure I want one before I actually use one.
It looks brilliant, but it all depends on how you can put it to use. I mean, you can’t just slide it into your pocket. And it’s a bit too small to be a personal computer. So, what it is then, is a hybrid between an iPhone and a MacBook Pro.
Except it isn’t. It doesn’t have many features of the MacBook and it’s a lot bigger than the iPhone. And you can’t use it as a phone, either. Not even with a headset. And using this to listen to music on the go, quite frankly, is a bit of an overkill.
Nevertheless, a stand-by time of a month is incredibly impressive. Although, I’m not sure if it matters, though…
It’s impressive, but it’s no game changer.
I don’t believe blindly something that was written in a book – any book (this includes the Bible). Unless it makes sense to me.
And well, the bible just doesn’t. You can say what you want but I just don’t buy the stories. Well, they are nice fairytales – very violent ones – but really? Seriously? Turning water into wine (umm, was that red wine or white? since if that was white wine – that may not have been water after all)? Walking on water (hint: stones under water and exact knowledge where they are)?
Do you really believe that today?
And what I especially don’t get about the Bible is how restrictive it really is…
I was religious (Lutheran Christian) as a child, well, up until I was about 6 or 7 – when I started questioning everything. It just didn’t make any sense anymore.
And what I really don’t like about religion is the fact that everybody believes their own god(s) is the only one. Seriously? There are all these religions around the world. Why is yours any different?
By the way – how can you not believe evolution? It’s basically been proven, but in the United States of America (the only place in the whole world where this still is a problem) they don’t want it taught in schools.
If this didn’t happen – then why do most animals have junk DNA left? Why are the races different? I mean, there’s a scientific explanation why the races are different – and that’s also according to evolution.
Evolution is nothing more, nothing less than just simply progress. People were much dumber 100 years ago than they are now – we have evolved into more intelligent human beings.
All in all, the Bible is a nice book to read – but I wouldn’t take everything you read seriously if I were you.
First published as a reply to this thread:
http://geeks.pirillo.com/forum/topics/how-holy-is-the-bible
Record labels always tell us the same old story… If you don’t know what this story is, I will tell you now:
“Music sales are declining because people are downloading our music illegally. Piracy is wrong! Boo-hoo. We are such a bunch of crybabies and lobbyists who can’t adapt to the changing market.” or something in those lines. It’s pathetic. Really pathetic.
If you know me, you’d know that I sometimes download music illegally. Why? Because the music you make isn’t worth buying. And because illegal downloading is faster and easier. You say, how can it be faster? For me it is. Since there isn’t an online store in this part of the world and I couldn’t be bothered to go outside to buy music, only to find out that they don’t sell this album… And never will.
And I can’t use the UK or US iTunes store to get my tunes either. Well, unless you actually go to the UK or US and buy an iTunes gift card… It’s all way too f*cking pointless.
One thing springs immediately to mind: Why the f*ck not?
And another thing that makes me want to throw a brick… a molotov cocktail through some b*tch-ass lobbyist’s window.
These days they are complaining about lost sales and all that bullsh*t. But the real reason the music is getting less sales… well, it is mainly two things:
1) Music sucks these days. Gaga sucks. Cirus sucks. Jonas Brothers suck each other off..
2) The recession. Have you guys heard of it? No, seriously? Maybe people can’t afford to buy your sh*t music anymore?
And you know, what? Record sales are up through the roof.
This year, and in fact, every year I have Christmas with the family. Every year 10-12 people are there.
This leads me to question the meaning of Christmas. It’s been long since the days of celebrating the birth of a religious figure during Christmas. These days it’s Santa and presents and all that bullsh*t. Why do we give each other gifts during Christmas? I mean, we could instead buy ourselves whatever we wanted, couldn’t we save others and save ourselves from that Christmas stress. Every year, millions of people are stressed out around the world thinking what they should buy each other for Christmas. Why? Buy yourself whatever you f*cking want and save yourself and others from the stress…
I may sound like a pessimist, but this is really getting annoying. Every year we have that gift giving conundrum. Every f*cking year.
And in the shopping centres, Christmas starts way too early. It used to be three days long, now it is three (or more) months. They start in September (sometimes October) and end in late December (sometimes January).
For crying out loud, does this holiday have to be so damn long?
And what’s worse, there’s the way we celebrate it in this f*cking country of ours: A guy comes to your house, dressed as f*cking Santa, and to receive a present from your parents you have to perform a poem or a song to him by heart and if he doesn’t like it he can just not give you the damn present…
Last night, on Christmas Eve, I almost went mental as other people in the room didn’t like the poem I performed. I admit, it was a bit… vulgar, but for f*ck’s sake. Due to that, I was almost going to say something in the lines of “Up yours you red c*nt” to the guy, when I remembered that my relatives think of me as a polite person… Well, I am. But I can’t stand bullsh*t.
I mean it’s all way too much. It creates way too much stress – as if you didn’t have enough of it with the purchase of presents.
Merry Christmas!
I’m sorry if this bothers you, but I really have the need to continue my last post now…
The following story may be a bit depressing, so if you are easily influenced, try not to care.
I mean, people are just such f*cking idiots. For crying out loud.
Let me describe you a person… no particular person, but just a general type.
He lives in a really bad neighbourhood. In a rubbish flat with 1 room, a bathroom and a tiny kitchen. A flat which was last renovated in 1979… He has a wife/girlfriend and a small kid. The only jobs he gets are small and pay little. The only skill he has got is renovating stuff, but he doesn’t have (or make) enough to renovate his own home. His wife doesn’t love him…
But he’s got a car. And a nice one. But he never travels more than a couple of miles to the centre of the town and is always out of gas. And when his friends ask him for a favour, at least a small ride to the shops when they are sick, he charges them as if it was taxi service.
He drinks a lot. More than 10 litres of pure alcohol per year. Maybe even 20. He is thoroughly in debt. He has got all kinds of loans on him.
Now, if he sold his car, got a job and stopped drinking, he could probably support his family and get out of that rubbish flat into a nicer home, and then could also soon afford a car again. But he is too afraid. He’s afraid of having to walk. But he wouldn’t. It’s a lot easier to get on a bus than drive. But he’s afraid to look like a loser. He’s afraid to look like a loser to his friends who have very similar lives. And all of them are afraid.
He sits home, watching rubbish television on his 15″ CRT television from 1996. His wife/girlfriend doesn’t even speak to him. He has a cheap laptop, but that he bought when he was still living at home.
And what does he do all about it? Absolutely nothing. He just sits, watches TV like a zombie as the bills pile up and his family starves. And it’s all his fault. He had children too young. He never got a good education. He screwed up his life. But his still has his car…
And there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of these people. They just sit. And watch.
And you know who’s to blame? The society.
But not always.
Life is depressing, at times.
I mean, especially around here. People are miserable. People are losing their jobs. And those who don’t lose their jobs, get reduced pay. Cut by 30%. And that’s a lot if you’re only making $1000/month (you’re left with 700, which is taxed, and you’re left with $530 a month. Which is around $120/week. Which is not exactly a lot.).
And television isn’t making things better. They say it needs to be realistic, but that’s bullsh*t. Every single local show I’ve seen on local television makes you want to commit suicide. I’m not surprised the suicide rates are high around here. And, for once, I don’t blame them.
Really, television shows are really depressing. There’s one called Secrets, which consists of people sending depressing stories in and actors re-enacting them on television. What horrible sh*t is that…
You know what, there are even more depressing shows on television. Even the comedy shows aren’t funny anymore…
What the hell has happened?
And you’d hope that at these depressing times television would want to cheer you up. But it doesn’t. It just pours more oil into the fire…
Is it all due to the recession? I mean, life was a lot worse in the nineties around here, but nobody complained then. In fact, people were happy (and a bit drunk, but mostly happy). And television was funny.
What the **** is wrong with today’s society?
I woke up at 9 o’clock this morning.
Not because I wanted to, not because I needed to, but because someone called me.
It’s Saturday morning. If you knew me, you’d know I have really hard and long days during the work week, and prefer to sleep on Saturdays till, at least, two o’clock in the afternoon.
But no, it wasn’t because they had something urgent to tell me. Nothing is that urgent that it would wake me up 5 hours before I need to.
It was the usual broken PC thing. They had disconnected it and moved it into another room, but were unable to put it back together again. C’mon, how hard can it be to plug things back into where they were before? It’s not like all ports look the same and everything fits together. It’s not like you can mix up the monitor port and the USB…
And then they wanted me to do something completely new and surprising – send an e-mail from their behalf. I’m not kidding. They actually wanted me to send someone an e-mail from their behalf…
What the hell happened to phones?
Couldn’t they just call them if it was so urgent?
It’s not like most people read their e-mail on Saturdays, anyway. I know I don’t.
And then, after 10 minutes of the sleepiest tech support ever I thought this was it. The call ended, and I thought it was over so I could go back to sleep.
5 minutes later I got another call… The same people asking me to send another e-mail.
For f**ks sake. Couldn’t they have just told me the contents of both e-mails at once…
And, to make matters worse, I actually had to look the e-mail address up.
What the hell?
After all that headache, I couldn’t sleep any longer, so I decided to treat myself to a new router. I went to a really nice and new shopping centre in the city centre and bought myself a new router – an Airport Extreme. And I went to a Latvian restaurant and had, what probably was, the best thing I’ve ever eaten…
Then I headed home to set up my new network. And then I satisfied my OCD by cleaning my whole office, including every single key on every single keyboard.
Have you ever heard of a concept called “free promotion”? Basically, the product you sell gets advertised, without you paying for the advertising… Well, how does it work?
Let’s take an example – youtube. A user posts a video containing your music. Or a music video by an artist that’s signed under your label.
You think to yourself – “oh my god they are stealing our music.” First of all, why do you assume that they are stealing, and why do you assume it will create a loss in profit?
In fact, common sense tells us that if a song is advertised *anywhere* and people like it, people will probably buy it. But if the song isn’t available on, for example, youtube, then your song will be unheard, and probably bought a lot less.
I agree on one point, though. If the author of the song isn’t credited or any mention of the song’s name and performer isn’t there, then it should count as copyright infringement. But if the author and/or performer is credited and the song’s title given and (preferably) a link to the song on, let’s say, umm, iTunes is given, then what’s the f**king problem?
Have you heard of these things, called, err, common sense and independent thought?
Because if you had any of either, you’d realise disabling audio on infringing promoting videos is clearly… retarded.
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Don't Stop Me Now |
